Agnes Martin Biography

Born Agnes Bernice Martin, March 22, 1912, in Macklin, Saskatchewan,
Canada; died of complications from pneumonia, December 16, 2004, in Taos,
NM. Artist. Agnes Martin touched many people throughout her career,
despite her tendency to shut herself off from the world. She was
considered one of the great painters of the Abstract Expressionist period.
Her paintings of barely there colors and lines also led some critics to
characterize her as a Minimalist, a categorization she rejected. Martin
won numerous awards including a National Medal of the Arts and a Golden
Lion for her contribution to contemporary art.

Martin was born to Scottish Presbyterian pioneers in Canada. Her father
died when she was two, and her mother raised her family by purchasing old
properties, renovating them, and then selling them. The family moved to
Vancouver, and her maternal grandfather helped in rearing her and her
brother, using the Bible and John Bunyan's
Pilgim's Progress
to mold them. Though Martin began drawing at an early age, she decided
upon a teaching career. She moved to the United States to attend Western
Washington College of Education, in Bellingham, Washington from 1935 to
1938. She began teaching in high schools in various states, including
Washington and Delaware. She transferred to the Teachers College at
Columbia University in New York. Martin earned both her bachelors and
masters degrees from Teachers College. She also taught in high schools in
New Mexico. During this time, Martin attended seminars taught by
Krishnamurti and Zen scholar D. T. Suzuki. These teachings would
profoundly affect her, both personally and professionally.

Though Martin worked as a teacher, painting was never far from her heart.
She continued honing her craft, and participated in a study program at the
Harwood Museum in Taos, New Mexico. She fell in love with the area, and
soon resettled there. She held her first art exhibit in Taos. Her time in
the town, famous for the abundance of artists who were drawn to the town
via word-of-mouth or its natural setting in the mountains, was not full of
pleasant-ries. She endured hardship after hardship as her paintings sold
for very little and not as often as she would hope. Her studio also
doubled as her home for a time. Also during this time, she became a United
States citizen.

Martin's art came to the attention of Betty Parsons of the
legendary Betty Parsons Gallery. Parsons helped the talented artist sell a
few of her paintings, and offered her a solo exhibition as long as Martin
would agree to move back to New York. Martin agreed and, with the help of
renowned artist Ellsworth Kelly, found a loft on Coentis Slip to live in.
Coentis Slip was home to a number of struggling artists—such as
Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist—whose art
would become commercial successes in later years. Martin's loft was
in dire need of repairs and renovations; she installed her own plumbing,
and also located a studio in which to paint.

In 1958 Martin held a solo exhibition at the Parsons Gallery. Influenced
by Abstract Expressionist artists such Ad Reinhardt and Mark Rothko, she
began creating abstract paintings in place of landscapes and portraits,
which she had previously done. Her style mimicked her contemporaries, but
soon she came into her own style. According to London's
Times,
Martin stated she came into her artistic maturity around 1960. Her
method, according to the
Times,
included: "a square format; canvas primed with two layers of
gesso; hand-drawn pencil lines; thin layers of paint, first in oils, then
in acrylic which she preferred because it was much quicker to dry."

With this method Martin's art became both lucrative and critically
acclaimed. She usually kept to herself and found the pressures of the New
York art world overbearing. With Coentis Slip scheduled for demolition in
1967, Martin decided to leave the art world. She gave away most of her
possessions, including her painting supplies, and soon embarked upon a
journey across the United States and Canada. She would not paint for seven
years. She resettled in New Mexico, built an adobe house by herself, and
focused on writing instead.

However, Martin's work was not soon forgotten. She still held
several solo exhibitions during her self-imposed exile, including a major
retrospective of her work at the University of Pennsylvania's
Institute of Contemporary Art in 1973. And though she felt her work was
more in line with the Abstract Expressionist period, many Minimalist
period artists were heavily influenced by her art and sought her out.
During her "exile" she also built three more buildings on
her land and kept mainly to herself, living a very simple and quiet life.

In 1974 she began painting again. She kept her home base in New Mexico,
though she moved from one town to another twice. She chose to create
smaller paintings versus hiring an assistant to help her move her
paintings. In 1992, she moved into a retirement residence in Taos. She
continued painting,
but spent most of her days with friends or in quiet solitude. She had no
radio or television, and she had not read a newspaper in five decades.

Martin's art reflected her quiet and simple life. According to the
Chicago Tribune,
she said, "I often paint tranquility. If you stop thinking and
rest, then a little happiness comes into your mind. At perfect rest you
are comfortable." According to Christopher Knight in the
Los Angeles Times,
"An acute attention to life's quiet rhythms characterized
her work."

Martin held solo exhibitions in many countries, including England, France,
and Japan. She also participated in a variety of group exhibitions. Her
paintings are a part of collections in a variety of museums, including the
Whitney Museum in New York, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., the
Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

In addition to her paintings, Martin also wrote several articles and
books, some non-art-related. They include 1971's
On A Clear Day,
1992's
Writings/ Schriften,
and
La Perfection inherente a la vie,
published in 1993. Martin received numerous awards and honors for her
contributions to art. She was named one of "100 Women of
Achievement" in 1967 by
Harper's Bazaar
and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She was
awarded a National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts
as well as the Golden Lion at the 1997 Venice Biennale. Martin died of
complications from pneumonia in her home at the Plaza de Retiro, a
retirement community in Taos, New Mexico, on December 16, 2004; she was
92. She is survived by a grandnephew, Derrick Martin.
Sources:
Chicago Tribune,
December 17, 2004, sec. 3, p. 9;
Contemporary Women Artists,
St. James Press, 1999;
Los Angeles Times,
December 17, 2004, p. B12;
New York Times,
December 17, 2004, p. C9;
Times
(London), December 18, 2004, p. 67;
Washington Post,
December 18, 2004, p. B6.

—
Ashyia
N.
Henderson

User Contributions:

Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: